Sir William Waad
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Sir William Wade (or Waad, or Wadd; 154621 October 1623) was an
English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Culture, language and peoples * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England * ''English'', an Amish ter ...
statesman and diplomat, and
Lieutenant of the Tower of London The Lieutenant of the Tower of London serves directly under the Constable of the Tower. The office has been appointed at least since the 13th century. There were formerly many privileges, immunities and perquisites attached to the office. Like t ...
.


Early life and education

William Wade was the eldest son of Armagil Wade, the traveller, who sailed with a party of adventurers for North America in 1536, later, one of the clerks of the privy council in London and a member of parliament, and his first wife, Lady Alice Patten. Both his parents died in 1568, and Wade succeeded to the family property, his father's sons by his first wife having predeceased him. In 1571 he was admitted a student of
Gray's Inn The Honourable Society of Gray's Inn, commonly known as Gray's Inn, is one of the four Inns of Court (professional associations for barristers and judges) in London. To be called to the bar in order to practise as a barrister in England and Wale ...
, and a few years later, doubtless with a view to entering the service of the government, he began travelling on the continent.


Career

In July 1576 Wade was living in Paris and frequently supplied political information to
William Cecil, 1st Baron Burghley William Cecil, 1st Baron Burghley (13 September 15204 August 1598), was an English statesman, the chief adviser of Elizabeth I, Queen Elizabeth I for most of her reign, twice Secretary of State (England), Secretary of State (1550–1553 and ...
, whose "servant" he is described as being. He claimed "familiar acquaintance" with the celebrated French publicist
Jean Bodin Jean Bodin (; ; – 1596) was a French jurist and political philosopher, member of the Parlement of Paris and professor of law in Toulouse. Bodin lived during the aftermath of the Protestant Reformation and wrote against the background of reli ...
, from whom he seems to have derived some of the news he forwarded to Burghley. In the autumn of 1576
Amias Paulet Sir Amias Paulet (1532 â€“ 26 September 1588) of Hinton St. George, Somerset, was an English diplomat, Governor of Jersey, and the gaoler for a period of Mary, Queen of Scots. Origins He was the son of Sir Hugh Paulet of Hinton St G ...
took Wade to
Blois Blois ( ; ) is a commune and the capital city of Loir-et-Cher Departments of France, department, in Centre-Val de Loire, France, on the banks of the lower Loire river between Orléans and Tours. With 45,898 inhabitants by 2019, Blois is the mos ...
. During the winter of 1578–79 he was in Italy, from where he forwarded to Burghley reports on its political condition. From
Venice Venice ( ; ; , formerly ) is a city in northeastern Italy and the capital of the Veneto Regions of Italy, region. It is built on a group of 118 islands that are separated by expanses of open water and by canals; portions of the city are li ...
in April 1579 he sent Burghley fifty of the rarest kinds of seeds in Italy. In May he was in
Florence Florence ( ; ) is the capital city of the Italy, Italian region of Tuscany. It is also the most populated city in Tuscany, with 362,353 inhabitants, and 989,460 in Metropolitan City of Florence, its metropolitan province as of 2025. Florence ...
, and in February 1579/80 he was living in
Strasbourg Strasbourg ( , ; ; ) is the Prefectures in France, prefecture and largest city of the Grand Est Regions of France, region of Geography of France, eastern France, in the historic region of Alsace. It is the prefecture of the Bas-Rhin Departmen ...
. In the following April he was employed on a delicate mission in Paris by
Sir Henry Cobham Sir Henry Cobham (1537–1592) was an English diplomat. Life The fifth son of George Brooke, 9th Baron Cobham, he was always known as, and signed himself, Henry Cobham. He went to Spain with Sir Thomas Chaloner the elder who was accredited as ...
. Among appointments in London, Wade undertook a number of ambassadorial missions, in 1580 to Portugal; then in 1581 he became secretary to
Sir Francis Walsingham Sir Francis Walsingham ( â€“ 6 April 1590) was principal secretary to Queen Elizabeth I of England from 20 December 1573 until his death and is popularly remembered as her " spymaster". Born to a well-connected family of gentry, Wa ...
and in 1583 he was appointed as one of the
clerk A clerk is a white-collar worker who conducts record keeping as well as general office tasks, or a worker who performs similar sales-related tasks in a retail environment. The responsibilities of clerical workers commonly include Records managem ...
s of the Privy Council. In April of that year he was sent to
Vienna Vienna ( ; ; ) is the capital city, capital, List of largest cities in Austria, most populous city, and one of Federal states of Austria, nine federal states of Austria. It is Austria's primate city, with just over two million inhabitants. ...
to discuss the differences between the
Hanseatic League The Hanseatic League was a Middle Ages, medieval commercial and defensive network of merchant guilds and market towns in Central Europe, Central and Northern Europe, Northern Europe. Growing from a few Northern Germany, North German towns in the ...
and English merchants abroad, and in July he accompanied
Lord Willoughby Baron Willoughby of Parham was a title in the Peerage of England with two creations. The first creation was for Sir William Willoughby who was raised to the peerage under letters patent in 1547, with the remainder to his heirs male of body. An ...
on his embassy to
Denmark Denmark is a Nordic countries, Nordic country in Northern Europe. It is the metropole and most populous constituent of the Kingdom of Denmark,, . also known as the Danish Realm, a constitutionally unitary state that includes the Autonomous a ...
to invest the
king King is a royal title given to a male monarch. A king is an Absolute monarchy, absolute monarch if he holds unrestricted Government, governmental power or exercises full sovereignty over a nation. Conversely, he is a Constitutional monarchy, ...
with the insignia of the Garter, and to negotiate an agreement on mercantile affairs. In January 1583–4 he was sent to Madrid to explain the expulsion from England of the Spanish ambassador, Mendoza. He arrived in March, but Phillip II refused all his requests for an interview and ordered him out of Spain, with an intimation that he was fortunate to escape to liberty. He was back in England on 12 April, and with his return diplomatic relations between England and Spain ceased. In the same month Wade was sent to
Mary Stuart, Queen of Scots Mary, Queen of Scots (8 December 1542 – 8 February 1587), also known as Mary Stuart or Mary I of Scotland, was Queen of Scotland from 14 December 1542 until her forced abdication in 1567. The only surviving legitimate child of James V of ...
, to induce her to come to terms with Elizabeth. Wade witnessed a discussion with a French envoy about her dowry income, and Mary took the opportunity to complain about her treatment in England and her declining health. In February 1585, he was appointed to accompany
Claude Nau Claude Nau or Claude Nau de la Boisseliere (d. 1605) was a confidential secretary of Mary, Queen of Scots, in England from 1575 to 1586. He was involved in coding Mary's letters with cipher keys. Career Nau was a successful lawyer practicing in Par ...
to the court of
King James VI of Scotland James VI and I (James Charles Stuart; 19 June 1566 – 27 March 1625) was King of Scotland as James VI from 24 July 1567 and King of England and King of Ireland, Ireland as James I from the union of the Scottish and English crowns on 24 M ...
, but his appointment was cancelled at the last minute. In March 1585 Wade was despatched to Paris to demand the surrender of the conspirator Thomas Morgan. Henry III was willing to consider the request, but the Catholic League and the Guises were violently opposed to it and even instructed the
Duc d'Aumale The County of Aumale, later elevated to a Duchy, was a medieval fief in the Duchy of Normandy, disputed between France and England during parts of the Hundred Years' War. Norman nobility Aumale was a medieval fief in the Duchy of Normandy and, ...
to waylay Wade and rescue Morgan on their way to the coast. Wade, however, convinced that he could not secure Morgan, contented himself with obtaining a promise that Morgan should be detained in prison in France, but Aumale nevertheless attacked the envoy near Amiens and inflicted on him a severe beating as an answer to his demand for the extradition of a Roman Catholic from France. In August, Wade accompanied William Davison to the Low Countries to negotiate an alliance with the
States-General of the Netherlands The States General of the Netherlands ( ) is the supreme bicameral legislature of the Netherlands consisting of the Senate () and the House of Representatives (). Both chambers meet at the Binnenhof in The Hague. The States General originated i ...
. A year later he took a prominent part in arranging the seizure of Mary Stuart's papers, which implicated her in the
Babington Plot The Babington Plot was a plan in 1586 to assassinate Queen Elizabeth I, a Protestantism, Protestant, and put Mary, Queen of Scots, her Catholic Church, Catholic cousin, on the English throne. It led to Mary's execution, a result of a letter s ...
. He himself went down to Chartley in August 1586, and, while Mary was decoyed away on a hunting expedition, arrested her secretaries Nau and Curle, and having ransacked her cabinet, carried back a valuable collection of papers to London. For this important service he was paid thirty pounds. In 1587 Wade was again in France. During the remainder of the reign of
Elizabeth I of England Elizabeth I (7 September 153324 March 1603) was Queen of England and Ireland from 17 November 1558 until her death in 1603. She was the last and longest reigning monarch of the House of Tudor. Her eventful reign, and its effect on history ...
, he was much occupied in searching for
Jesuits The Society of Jesus (; abbreviation: S.J. or SJ), also known as the Jesuit Order or the Jesuits ( ; ), is a religious order (Catholic), religious order of clerics regular of pontifical right for men in the Catholic Church headquartered in Rom ...
and in discovering plots against the life of the queen.
James I James I may refer to: People *James I of Aragon (1208–1276) * James I of Sicily or James II of Aragon (1267–1327) * James I, Count of La Marche (1319–1362), Count of Ponthieu * James I, Count of Urgell (1321–1347) *James I of Cyprus (1334†...
, who knighted him in 1603. employed him in similar ways, and he was occupied that year in unravelling the
Bye Plot The Bye Plot of 1603 was a conspiracy, by Priesthood (Catholic Church), Roman Catholic priests and Puritans aiming at toleration, tolerance for their respective denominations, to kidnap the new English king, James I of England. It is referred to ...
and
Main Plot The Main Plot was an alleged conspiracy of July 1603 by English courtiers to remove King James I from the English throne and to replace him with his cousin Lady Arbella Stuart. The plot was supposedly led by Lord Cobham and funded by the Spani ...
. Wade was
Lieutenant of the Tower of London The Lieutenant of the Tower of London serves directly under the Constable of the Tower. The office has been appointed at least since the 13th century. There were formerly many privileges, immunities and perquisites attached to the office. Like t ...
at the time of the
Gunpowder Plot The Gunpowder Plot of 1605, in earlier centuries often called the Gunpowder Treason Plot or the Jesuit Treason, was an unsuccessful attempted regicide against James VI and I, King James VI of Scotland and I of England by a group of English ...
and questioned
Guy Fawkes Guy Fawkes (; 13 April 1570 â€“ 31 January 1606), also known as Guido Fawkes while fighting for the Spanish, was a member of a group of provincial English Catholics involved in the failed Gunpowder Plot of 1605. He was born and educate ...
. For some time Wade was a member of the
Parliament of England The Parliament of England was the legislature of the Kingdom of England from the 13th century until 1707 when it was replaced by the Parliament of Great Britain. Parliament evolved from the Great Council of England, great council of Lords Spi ...
, elected as MP for Aldborough (1584),
Thetford Thetford is a market town and civil parishes in England, civil parish in the Breckland District of Norfolk, England. It is on the A11 road (England), A11 road between Norwich and London, just east of Thetford Forest. The civil parish, coverin ...
(1589), Preston (1601) and West Looe (1604). Wade sent observations about the behaviour of the lion cubs in the Tower to the
Earl of Salisbury Earl of Salisbury is a title that has been created several times in English and British history. It has a complex history and is now a subsidiary title to the marquessate of Salisbury. Background The title was first created for Patrick de Sa ...
. In September 1607, a breeding pair, Henry and Anne, had a cub, or "lion whelp". There was plague in London in September 1608 and Wade noted that life at the Tower was made inconvenient by tenements and housing built at the gate and barbican. As these houses were infected, he was reluctant to go in and out on the land side, and could only use the
Thames The River Thames ( ), known alternatively in parts as the River Isis, is a river that flows through southern England including London. At , it is the longest river entirely in England and the second-longest in the United Kingdom, after th ...
.


Later life

William Wade retired from public life in 1613, at the instigation of Frances Howard, Countess of Essex. She wanted Wade replaced with a less honest Lieutenant of the Tower, Sir
Gervase Helwys Sir Gervase Helwys (1 September 1561 – 20 November 1615), also known as Jervis Yelwys, was a Lieutenant of the Tower of London found guilty of complicity in the murder of Sir Thomas Overbury and hanged in 1615. The scandal provoked much publ ...
, as part of her scheme to murder the prisoner Thomas Overbury, who was opposed to her affair with
Robert Carr Leonard Robert Carr, Baron Carr of Hadley, (11 November 1916 – 17 February 2012) was a British Conservative Party politician who served as Home Secretary from 1972 to 1974. He served as a Member of Parliament (MP) for 26 years, and later s ...
. Wade had allowed
Lady Arbella Stuart Lady Arbella Stuart (also Arabella, or Stewart; 1575 – 25 September 1615) was an English noblewoman who was considered a possible successor to Queen Elizabeth I of England. During the reign of King James VI and I (her first cousin), she marrie ...
a key to her quarters in the Tower, and this was made the pretext for his replacement by Helwys. Wade was later praised by Lloyd, who claimed that "to his directions we owe Rider's ''Dictionary'', to his encouragement Hooker's ''
Polity A polity is a group of people with a collective identity, who are organized by some form of political Institutionalisation, institutionalized social relations, and have a capacity to mobilize resources. A polity can be any group of people org ...
'', and to his charge Gruter's ''Inscriptions''. A wall tablet within the church of St Mary the Virgin at
Manuden Manuden is a village and Civil parishes in England, civil parish in the Uttlesford district of Essex, England. It is located around north of Bishop's Stortford, in the neighbouring county of Hertfordshire, and around south-west of Saffron Walde ...
in Essex commemorates Wade (named Waad on the tablet). He lived at Battles Hall in the village during his retirement.Manuden and Berden History Society, Guide to St Mary the Virgin church Manuden (1993) Wade died on 21 October 1623 and is buried in the church. He had been a shareholder in the
Virginia Company The Virginia Company was an English trading company chartered by King James I on 10 April 1606 with the objective of colonizing the eastern coast of America. The coast was named Virginia, after Elizabeth I, and it stretched from present-day ...
, and the Wades of
Virginia Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern and Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States between the East Coast of the United States ...
claim descent from his father.


Notes


References

* * * * * * * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Waad, William 1546 births 1623 deaths Members of the pre-1707 English Parliament for constituencies in Cornwall Clerks of the Privy Council Members of the Privy Council of England Lieutenants of the Tower of London English MPs 1584–1585 English MPs 1589 English MPs 1601 English MPs 1604–1611 People from Uttlesford (district)